Acadia with Pair of Wins this Weekend

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The AUS second place Acadia Axemen delivered their second win in a row with a 4-2 victory over the UPEI Panthers, who drop to 9-10-2 and remain in a fight for a playoff spot sitting in fifth place – four points ahead of Moncton. The Axemen, fresh off of a 6-1 win over the struggling St. Thomas Tommies, faced UPEI who looked to rebound from a 2-1 loss to the Dalhousie Tigers one night ago.

Both teams fought for physical dominance in the opening period, combining for 12 minutes in penalties.

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Franko & Giftopolous with 3pts each

The Acadia Axemen defeated the St. Thomas Tommies by a 6-1 margin on Friday night in Wolfville. With the win, the Axemen sweep the season series 4-0, scoring 32 goals in the 4 games to the Tommies 16.

St. Thomas kept things tight early, and were the first on the board, with JC Laflamme tallying an unassisted goal shorthanded at 13:09 of the first period to put the away team up 1-0. With Acadia on the powerplay, the puck hopped over the stick of Axemen defenceman Chris Owens’ stick, as he tried to hold the blue line. That sent Laflamme in all alone, and he found the back of the net, beating Acadia first year goaltender Robert Steeves.

But the Axemen battled back just 1:11 later as Scott Trask buried a shot past Tyson Teichmann to even the score at 1; it was Trask’s second goal on the season and Giftopolous and Poliziani picked up assists. Acadia went to the powerplay and took the lead for good at 16:55 of the opening frame as Zach Franko fired a bullet to the top corner of the net for his 9^th goal on the season; Poliziani picked up his second assist on the night on the goal. Acadia would take the 2-1 lead into the dressing rooms, leading the way in shots by a 19-7 margin.

The second period stayed relatively tight, mostly due to some great goaltending from Teichmann, the Tommies goaltender, as he turned away 16 of 17 shots in the 2^nd period. The only shot to beat him was off the stick of Zach Franko, adding his second on the night. Remy Giftopolous had his second helper on the goal, with Matt Pufahl also getting an assist.Read more »

St. FX score 4 in the third period for the win

Antigonish, NS – The StFX X-Men (12-7) erased a two-goal deficit with four unanswered tallies in the third period to earn a 4-2 win over the CIS No. 3 ranked Acadia Axemen (14-5) Saturday night in AUS hockey action.

On the power play, the visiting Axemen opened the scoring at 10:26 of the first period. Geoff Schemitsch (Thornhill, ON) beat Drew Owsley (Lethbridge, AB) with a one-timer from the right face-off circle. Matthew Pufahl (Saskatoon, SK) and Zachary Franko (Winnipeg, MB) garnered assists on the marker.

Acadia doubled the lead on a goal from Dylan Anderson (Ottawa, ON), who walked out from behind the X-Men net and beat Owsley from the lip of the crease on the forehand. Travis Randell (Twillingate, NL) and Remy Giftopoulos (Ancaster, ON) drew the assists at 7:39 of the second period.

Jarrad Struthers (Glace Bay, NS), from Blake Gal (Lethbridge, AB) and Michael Kirkpatrick (North Sydney, NS) cut the Axemen lead to 2-1 at the 7:48 mark of the third period.

After a sliding Trey Lewis (Aldouane, NB) shot block, one of several on the night for the freshman defender, the X-Men broke into the Axemen zone on four-on-one. Glover made the initial save on a MacIntosh slap shot, but he could not block the second attempt from the junior forward. Craig Duininck (St. Cloud, MN) collected the lone assist at 8:58.Read more »

Owens scores winner to give Acadia come from behind win

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – The first home match up of the New Year was set to be an exciting one as both teams looked to make a push for the top spot in the AUS standings during the second half of the season. Saint Mary’s entered the game only one point behind the Acadia Axemen in the standings. Prior to tonight’s Axemen 5-4 win, the Huskies lead the regular season series of four games 2-0 with both games being won by only a single goal.

The Huskies wasted no time opening the scoring early, two minutes in, capitalizing on an Acadia turn over below the goal line, Alex Cord netted his first goal of the regular season under the blocker arm of Brandon Glover.

Following a Saint Mary’s hooking call, Michael Clarke capitalized off of a miscue by a Huskie defenseman, returning the favour just 76 seconds later, rifling one off the cross bar and in.

With under a minute to play in the opening frame, third year forward Brett Thompson caught Huskies on a line change, allowing him to break away on his own, scoring on Anthony Peters on the far side to give Acadia their first lead.

The lead didn’t last long as the Huskies took advantage of a powerplay with 7 seconds remaining in the period. Kyle Pereira wired a slap shot through traffic that fooled Glover, tying the game at two-a-piece.

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Acadia Leapfrogs idle UNB for first place in AUS

The Acadia Axemen returned to the ice after a five week study and holiday break, with a 4-2 victory over the Dalhousie Tigers (4-12-1).

With the win, Acadia improves to 13-3-1 on the season, leapfrogging one point past the idle UNB Varsity Reds into first place in the AUS, with UNB holding a game in hand.

Acadia came out of the gates on fire, with scoring chances upon scoring chances from the first shift through the final shift in the first period; but when the dust cleared, and the period ended, Dalhousie Tigers goaltender Corbin Boes, had made 16 saves and the teams were scoreless. At times the line of Cazzola, Thompson, and Heelis looked like they were putting on a cycling clinic as they played keep away from the Dal defenders, but putting the puck past Boes was another story. Dal managed just 4 shots in the scoreless opening frame.

5:13 into the second period, it was Dalhousie that opened the scoring, as Kendall MacInnis got the puck in the slot with his back to the net, spun around shooting at the same time, beating Axemen goaltender Brandon Glover low to the blocker side. A score that held until 12:20 of the period when Acadia broke into the Dal zone on a 3 on 2, and the Axemen made the most of the odd man rush with a tic-tac-toe passing play as Sam Fioretti sent the puck to Boston Leier, who then fed Michael Clarke, who put the puck past the sprawling Dal goaltender to tie the game up at 1. It was Clarke’s second goal on the season, after missing much of the first half due to injury.

It looked like the teams might end the second period tied, until Brett Thompson fed a perfect pass up the middle of the ice to send linemate Mike Cazzola in alone on Boes, and Cazzola made no mistake. He fired a rocket shot to the top corner with just 54 seconds remaining in the period, putting Acadia up 2-1. Tyler Ferry picked up the secondary assist on Cazzola’s 10th goal on the season.Read more »